Raindrops
by Snowfallxo
Summary: JONAS. Because life isn't about how you survive the storm, but how you dance in the rain. And anyone who says that sunshine brings happiness has never done just that. Nick/Macy


**A/N: So this is sort of a response to PHM challenge number seven, but I didn't quite realize that it fit until after I wrote half of it and remembered that the challenges existed. I have a nice uphill walk to my bus stop, and although it isn't quite two-point-two miles and I wasn't late for school, the weather conditions were not any different. Oh well. It's an excuse to write short (emphasis on "short") little Nacy fluff. Something I don't like passing up.**

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Slush.

It was raining, snowing, sleeting, freezing raining, hailing, and precipitating slush. And I was just lucky enough to be standing up to my ankles in it. It was brown and gray and tinged with the whitest bit of leftover snow along the edge, but that didn't make it look at all beautiful. It certainly didn't feel that way, either. My shoes were soaked through to my bare skin, freezing my toes (I suspected that they were blue by now), and the cuffs of my pants were as wet as if I had stuck them in a swimming pool.

Which I hadn't. All I had done to deserve this unfortunate fate was the fact that I had played that small little prank on Kevin four months ago (note to self: Kevin is capable of revenge) and now I was stuck walking to school in the cold late-February New Jersey slush because my car had broken down. It didn't help my self-esteem at all that Kevin allowed Joe to go with him, even though Joe had helped me as well. Curse Kevin for believing in ghosts and being so freaking gullible.

So maybe the slush wasn't exactly falling from the sky, but raindrops were, and melting ice-mush falling from rooftops was also a factor. And the rain turned all of the snow to slush. Just for me to walk through. For two-point-two freaking miles. In the rain. If I hadn't already mentioned that part.

My hair was really wet, so wet that it had lost its curl – I had caught my reflection in a store window and was surprised to see it so straight, as if I'd used Joe's flat-iron. It was hanging in my eyes and my face and was cold, and when I tried to brush it away, I noticed that the water in it had begun to freeze. Frozen hair. Yippee. At least I probably wouldn't get attacked on my way to school. Not that even the craziest girl would even try in this weather. I was the only person on the street, save for the few occasional cars going by, spraying slush at me as they whizzed past.

The sky was dark, the rain, wind, and slush was cold, and I was alone. Alone and wet. Wet and cold.

On top of this all, I was going to be late for school, and Stella was going to personally murder me for ruining my clothes, and before that, yell at me for trying to blame it on my brothers. Maybe I'd get pneumonia or something and die. As a diabetic, it was all too possible.

It was an eternity and a half later that I finally arrived at school. The halls were empty as I opened the door, and looking at my watch upon impulse, saw that it was nine o'clock. Detention, here I come. Now my parents could murder me. After they got in line behind Stella and the theoretical pneumonia I was sure to catch. Or at least a really bad cold.

As quickly as I could, I ran to my calculus class and tried to slip in unnoticed. To no avail.

"Mr. Lucas, so nice of you to join us this morning." Mr. Furman smiled that smile that he got whenever he was ready to torture one of his students. Or when he got a new cat. "I suppose you have some sort of excuse for me?"

"Um, my car broke down and I had to walk. In the rain," I added, trying to get sympathy. Joe, in the front row, snickered. Stella looked horrified, probably because my pants were ruined. "I really hate the rain." I tried to meet the eyes of Fred in hopes that he wouldn't start singing "Before the Storm" for everyone to hear. He's been known to do that type of thing.

If only Macy was here…

"So, your car broke down. And you couldn't get a ride with your brother because…?" Joe's grin became wider at this statement, and he covered his mouth to hide it. I glared at him and tried to curl my hair around my finger. It flopped back down straight and stuck to my cheek.

"I believe that Joe could answer that question better than I could," I muttered, and made my way to my seat.

Mr. Furman walked over and handed me a pink slip. "I'll see you after school today, Nicholas," he said. One glance over at Joe told me that he was about to burst out laughing in the middle of class. Stella had a look of pity and anger on her face, and knowing her, she would need to fix any wardrobe malfunctions I had before she even began to care about my feelings. I was no Joe Lucas, no boyfriend of hers, no Van Dyke Tosh. I was just Joe Lucas's little brother, no one too important.

During lunch, I avoided my brothers and Stella, not wanting a confrontation. Instead, I spent the period staring out the window into the atrium, at the rain falling from the sky and the freaking slush on the ground. What a picture perfect Kodak moment. Not.

"I was told I might find you here." Fifteen minutes into the period, I looked up from my hiding spot against the lockers and into Macy's face. "Although I'm surprised – no guitar? No actual reason to be sitting here staring at gray mush?"

"I'm figuring out ways to get revenge on it. That, and my older brothers." She sat down across from me, blocking the doorway for anyone crazy enough to want to go outside in the rain.

She smiled, used to my sarcastic humor by now. "Not having a good day?"

"Kevin got detention for me by making me walk to school, Stella is going to absolutely kill me for ruining my clothes because I had to walk to school, my parents are going to be mad because I'm going to blame it on my brothers that I had to walk to school, and I'm probably going to die from pneumonia because…"

"You had to walk to school? I get your point." She rolled her eyes. "Do you not have a guitar to vent on because you had to walk to school in the rain?"

"Go ahead and add that to the list."

She looked at her hands for a second. "Nick, life isn't about how you survive the storm. Sometimes you have to take your mind off of things and focus on the positive. Today you learned that everything isn't already fair."

"I knew that, I'm not five." I sighed. "If life isn't about surviving the storm, then what is it about? That's like saying that life isn't-"

Macy cut me off. "Life isn't about how you survive the storm, but how you dance in the rain." She looked outside. "I like the rain. I mean, the slush, sure, that isn't fun, but the rain is pretty. Especially in spring, when it's all green and lush."

"This is February. Green doesn't go very well with gray."

"Maybe not. But would it kill you to see the positive side in this?" She stood up, and offered me her hand to help me up. I took it, and to my surprise, she opened the door to the atrium. "Come on. I dare you." And before I could respond, she dragged me outside into the rain.

I looked up to the sky. It was gray, and it was gray. And raining. But I think I already mentioned that. But when Macy put her hands on my shoulders, I forgot about all that. And even with no music playing, together we danced in the rain, spinning, twirling…

Were people watching? Yes, it was raining, and no, I didn't care. I had more slush on my shoes, but this time, Macy was with me. My grip on reality seemed to be slowly diminishing, and my thoughts became more and more corny, but really, there was truth in her words.

"You know what, Mace?" I asked.

"What, Nick?"

"Whoever says that sunshine brings happiness has never danced in the rain with you."

She giggled and pressed her head up against my chest, and I pulled her close to me and hugged her there in the middle of the atrium, shivering, cold, and wet. Somehow, after that, her lips found mine and we kissed. With the whole school watching. Did I feel this way about Macy Misa? I wasn't sure. Or was I?

The magic-eight-ball in my head said yes. Definitely yes. None of that "try again later" shit. No, I knew that this was it. That Macy was the one.

"Next time you have to walk to school in the rain, Nick, call me," she said to me, smiling. "I'll walk with you. I won't let anything bring you down. And next time you feel that way, just remember this moment." The bell rang, she walked away, leaving me alone in the middle of the atrium staring dumbstruck at the sky.

When the sun came out ten minutes later during biology, I found myself wishing the rain back again.

_as i'm standing here and you hold my hand  
__pull me towards you and we start to dance  
__all around us i hear nobody  
__here in silence it's just you and me...  
i don't know what to do,  
__**i **t**h**i**n**k________**i'**__m __**f**__a__**l**__l__**i**__n__**g **__f__**o**__r __**y**__o__**u**__._

A rainy day in Minnesota on tour, and I was out there, dancing with the ten million brave little lightning bugs and my memories of Macy Misa. I promised myself that I would never forget that. Because it wasn't about surviving the storm. It was all about dancing in the rain, because that was what brought happiness.

Not sunshine, but raindrops.

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**Disclaimer: I don't own JONAS or the lyrics to "Fallin' For You" by Colbie Calliat (it's a change from my normal Jonas/Owl City mix, huh?). I also don't own that button below, but I do like it when people click it. So please do!**

_Life isn't about how you survive the storm, but how you dance in the rain. And anyone who says that sunshine brings happiness has never done just that._


End file.
